3d wave propagation and traceback in vascular extraction

Presents an approach for the extraction of vasculature from a volume of magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) images by using a 3D wave propagation and traceback mechanism. The method employs a dual-sigmoid filter to label each voxel in the MRA image volume with the likelihood that it is within a vessel. Resulting likelihood image is modeled as a medium, represented as an array of refractive indices, through which a wave may be propagated. Starting from the base of the vasculature, the digital wave propagates through the medium and extracts the vascular tree while washing over the local noise perturbations.